Apple is having a hard time courting advertisers for its iAd program, with buyers seeing them as too slow and unwilling to build relationships in ways that advertisers prefer. Despite the desire of media buyers to work with them, Apple continues to trail companies like Google and Facebook in advertising revenue. Both of those companies are more open with advertisers about consumer data. But even though Apple sits upon a treasure trove of names, location data, purchases histories, and much, much more, they dole it out only in small amounts, much to the frustration of marketers, according to Ad Age:

Apple knows names and addresses, geographic locations and app and music-purchase histories, and can show ad buyers that a group with specific characteristics also likes certain types of apps or music. However, its user tracking and ad targeting are not cookie-based, meaning agencies can't do automated buys via their cookie-centric trading desks, which allow them to mesh lots of data from different sources. Instead, they have to go to Apple, ask to reach a given audience and, well, trust Apple that it will deliver it.

How do you feel about Apple's stance on sharing consumer data with advertisers? Let us know below in the comments.

Reader comments

One of the reasons I use apple products is because of Apples firm privacy policies. I like how apple isn't wavering to ad companies like google and other big tech companies have. They don't make the money the other companies do. I think apple with benefit from keeping that sort of information private in the long run.

The difference between Apple and Facebook/Google is who their customer is. With Apple, we are their customer, so they can afford to (and should) be more protective/selective with customer information. With Facebook/Google, they offer us services for free and then turn around and sell what we give them.

"Apple continues to trail companies like Google and Facebook in advertising revenue. Both of those companies are more open with advertisers about consumer data. "

Given that I just handed Apple USD 1000 for a new iPhone, and Google USD 0 for using Youtube, Apple should be giving no-one anything about me, while Google can. Google is an ad company, so of course they can do it, since that is what you buy into with them. In other words, Apple have already got their "ad revenue" from me.

How can some thing that you voluntarily have to opt-in to be intrusive? In order to utilize iBeacon functionality you have to download and open whatever the app is that's utilizing it. iBeacons doesn't just start spamming you because your phone is in range of the signal.

I think the fact that we are already PAYING for their service as opposed to the free offerings of Facebook and Google, our data should be warrant as much privacy as legally allowed. With Apple, they have customers and little need for mining consumer data. Google and Facebook do not have this liberty which is why we are pretty much at their mercy. I applaud Apple for doing this and understanding its customer base in which many of us would be deeply upset if we found that Apple is also mining our data after just spending $100s of $1000s of dollars. Keep up the good work Apple and any other company that perform this practice!